This is Iman and Madi from KSPC! Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us today! First of all, we just want to see that your album has been charting a lot at KSPC which is really cool and a lot of our DJs like to play your music. We were wondering if you know how much support you get from other college stations.

We’ve been getting a lot, which is really crazy, we didn’t even remember that other people are gonna hear it until months after we made it. But we made it to the CMJ charts and everything.

That’s awesome.

Yeah, we’re hoping to get to lucky number 13 but we only made it to 16. I mean we can’t even believe we were on there at all, so that’s pretty good.

Congratulations.

Yeah, beggars can’t be number choosers, ya know? But yeah, I can’t believe anyone even hears it, so that’s rad. Thank you for playing it.

Cover of Death Valle Girls’ new album, Glow in the Dark. Image courtesy of Burger Records.

Yeah for sure! Can you tell us more about your vision for the album and in general what you felt while making this album?

Yeah, well, basically it all began about last year around Halloween-time we played a show at the Natural History Museum for a mummy exhibit. It was called “New Secrets from the Tomb.” We had this idea that, like, these mummies had been in Chicago at a museum since they were found in 1890, we were certain that they never heard rock & roll before, so we thought it was so illustrious that we could be the first to bring rock & roll to the dead and we wanted to write a bunch of songs to introduce rock & roll and potentially wake them up if they wanted to wake up.

That’s really cool! How was it playing within the space of the museum?

Well, that was the one problem was that we were outside. And we were sort of disappointed because the drummer and I had seen a mummy about a month before. That’s how this all started, really, was that we were walking down the street and we saw a mummy, the defecated remains of a person that had been mummified thousands of years ago walking down the street making mummy sounds.Not like a dead person, it wasn’t a zombie, it was the mummified remains of a person walking around my neighborhood. So we contacted the museum to see if they had any mummies and they were like “Yeah, we just got Chicago’s mummy exhibit two weeks ago!” We didn’t want to ask them are any mummies missing but they were so excited that we were interested in mummies at all and the mummy that we saw was a female mummy because it had bosoms so we asked them “Are there any girl mummies?” and they were like “Yeah come down” and someone else said “Why don’t you come play for the mummies?” and that’s how this whole thing started and after that we realized, like, we had made all these songs to introduce rock & roll to the dead, why not introduce rock & roll to the living, you know, so we decided to record Glow in the Dark which is sort of a call to arms for lots of other concepts we’re working on.

So, do you think you succeeded in bringing rock & roll to the mummies?

Yeah, for sure, definitely! At the very least it was very conceptually starting there as our real first full record, you know you can only go up from there. If your goal is to wake the dead, introduce the dead, introduce the living, reawaken the living, only the sky is left to go. It changed the whole concept of what a rock & roll show can and should be.

What do you find was the vision in your previous releases? How has that changed?

Before we were just thinking that it would be cool to make a record that kids would listen to over and over again and learn how to play guitar or bass, just a regular rock & roll record that makes people want to dance or drive real fast or drive real slow or whatever, listen to after a breakup, whatever, but we didn’t realize before how important it could be, how globally and universally important a record should be.

Yeah, like transforming.

Yeah, yeah.

What’s your favorite song off of the new album?

Whoooooa! No one has asked that. Well there’s one song that’s recorded on there that was all first takes and first singing and first everything, actually there’s more than one, but one that I don’t think would ever be able to be recreated as it is on that record is Death Valley Boogie. There’s something special about it, it’s the most magical one where everything just happened right then and there, we had never really played it before and that was really cool. Pink Radiation, too, we had never played it before, most of the songs we had not played before, it’s hard to say! I don’t know, thanks for asking!

Yeah of course!

I’ll think about it later.

It’s a tough one. We were also wondering how the name Death Valley Girls came about and if you guys had a special connection or influence to the national park.

Well, we’re learning way more about national parks now than we ever knew was possible but Larry made it up, I think it came to him in a dream. Like a horror movie thing, sort of a Manson-utopian sort of theme that we are into.

I like the name a lot, it’s really cool.

Thank you!

It seems like there’s a lot of horror movie imagery, like how the name came, zombies and mummies, do you have a favorite horror movie or have horror movies influenced your work in other ways?

Oh boy, yeah. I think that Texas Chainsaw Massacre is probably our favorite movie but there are so many. I don’t see the difference between horror movies and rock & roll and gritty culture, you know, it’s all related.

What is your creative process like amongst you and the other members?

Oh, well, we don’t really believe that we write songs…it all just exists in outer space and when you’re lucky you can pull a song down but I mean mainly if it’s like a melody or riff it’ll come and it’ll be attached to one sentence and I won’t write the words until like an hour before we have to record it and then all of the words just fly onto the page. It has really little, I mean, as far as I’m aware, it has nothing to do with us but it’s that when we’re all together it just kind of happens.

That sounds special.

I wish we had a better process! You know what I mean? A less supernatural one.

I mean, clearly it works though!

Yeah! I just wish I was one of those prolific people that could just sit and write a bunch of stuff from my own personal head instead of having to wait for, you know, the magic of the universe to align and send us songs, you know? I mean, again, beggars can’t be choosers. We’re begging for it.

Lineup for Desert Daze! Death Valley Girls play on Friday. Image courtesy of their instagram.

How you feel about performing at a festival like Desert Daze at Joshua Tree and how does that compare to playing smaller, more intimate shows?

Well I really love the place that it’s at, the Institute of Mentalphysics. I’ve been there before and there’s like vortexes. That place is super super cool. And obviously we’re super excited to see like so many bands, not the least of which is The Sonics, Television, Meatbodies, and then all of our friends. Like so many of our friends that are in such rad bands are playing. But yeah, festivals can be super fun it just depends how they’re run and we’ve never done Desert Daze before but I’ve only ever heard amazing things.

Yeah, awesome! It sounds like a great time.

Yeah, almost every festival we’ve played in the desert is cool because people are going there to enjoy themselves and be, you know, in love, and get turned on. It seems like a good place for it. I don’t want to say where we’ve been to festivals that stink but there are places where people are trying to be annoying.

Alright, so thanks so much for taking the time to talk with us! We’re going to wrap it up with one last question. What is a question that you wish an interviewer would ask you, and what would the answer be?

Oh man, oh man. Uh, whoa that’s such a good question! That question! Let me use my brain for a second. I have to go to the inner depths of my brain. Let me ask Larry. Larry, what’s one question you want interviewers to ask but they never do?

Larry: Maybe this question! I don’t know.

Bonnie: We’re finally speechless!

Larry: In interviews, there’s a lot of the same questions, and you always think “Wow, I wish they’d ask something different!” But when they ask something like this it’s like, “wow, I don’t know”

Bonnie: I know what it is! I know what question!

What is it?

“We heard that Iggy and Alice Cooper and Ozzy think you’re so cool. Tell me, how do you feel about that?”

That’s awesome.

That’s all I have to say about that.

If you can’t catch Death Valley Girls at Desert Daze, make sure to check out their new album Glow in the Dark by listening to KSPC or streaming from Soundcloud!

]]>http://kspc.org/interview-death-valley-girls/feed/0ART AFTER HOURS – Fall 2016 Kickoff with KSPChttp://kspc.org/art-after-hours-fall-2016-kickoff-with-kspc/
http://kspc.org/art-after-hours-fall-2016-kickoff-with-kspc/#respondTue, 30 Aug 2016 23:45:23 +0000http://kspc.org/?p=5648This Thursday is an extremely special and powerful for many reasons. September 1st, KSPC and Pomona College of Art will be kicking off the fall 2016 Art After Hours series.

Art After Hours offers a variety of programming including live music concerts sponsored by KSPC 88.7 fm, lectures, panels, workshops, tours, film screenings, and performances in conjunction with Museum exhibitions and in partnership with student and academic groups across the campuses. Art After Hours expands access to the Museum as a dynamic venue that presents art as an integral part of campus life.

This week we will be welcoming two mighty female electronic artists! Linafornia is from Los Angeles and recently released her album “Yung” in January 2016. “Sounding like a blend of Madlib vintage soul claps and Organized Noize inspired bottom swing, Yung was two years in the making before wrapping up near the end of 2015. Released this year in January, LA Weekly contributor Jeff Weiss said, “During a time when the parameters of the beat scene are looser than ever, Linafornia delivered its best rookie album.”

Lealani is a 17-year-old producer from Pomona. She just recently performed at the Beat Invitational at The Low End Theory Festival in February 2016. She also joined us last year for an Art After Hours event when she performed as her band The Pezheads. Madeline Helland reviewed The Pezheads performance and shared “Her songs were sensational and they sounded even better live than the recordings we had all been playing. I call myself a fan of almost every performer at Art After Hours, but Lealani Teano won my heart for the evening. All the music lovers here at KSPC can’t wait to hear more from her.”

Don’t miss this! Please come on out to Art After Hours in the courtyard behind Thatcher Music Building! Music starts at 9pm (ish)! It’s totally free! You HAVE to hear Linafornia and Lealani’s beats. It will be life changing. Invite EVERYONE!

]]>http://kspc.org/art-after-hours-fall-2016-kickoff-with-kspc/feed/0From the KSPC Vault: Elvis Depressedly Interviewhttp://kspc.org/from-the-kspc-vault-elvis-depressedly-interview/
http://kspc.org/from-the-kspc-vault-elvis-depressedly-interview/#respondThu, 25 Aug 2016 21:05:07 +0000http://kspc.org/?p=5625Elvis Depressedly has just embarked on their Summertime 2016 tour. We are feeling nostalgic for October 2015 when KSPC DJs Mad Decent and DJ Salty interviewed Elvis Depressedly before their show at Chain Reaction in Anaheim. You can relive the fun by listening to the interview here!
]]>http://kspc.org/from-the-kspc-vault-elvis-depressedly-interview/feed/0Elvis Depressedly has just embarked on their Summertime 2016 tour. We are feeling nostalgic for October 2015 when KSPC DJs Mad Decent and DJ Salty interviewed Elvis Depressedly before their show at Chain Reaction in Anaheim.Elvis Depressedly has just embarked on their Summertime 2016 tour. We are feeling nostalgic for October 2015 when KSPC DJs Mad Decent and DJ Salty interviewed Elvis Depressedly before their show at Chain Reaction in Anaheim. You can relive the fun by listening to the interview here!underground – KSPC 88.7FMclean11:35Concert Review- Porches and Alex Ghttp://kspc.org/concert-review-porches-and-alex-g/
http://kspc.org/concert-review-porches-and-alex-g/#respondSun, 17 Apr 2016 22:12:31 +0000http://kspc.org/?p=5218Superstar KSPC volunteer Samantha went to see college radio faves Porches and Alex G at their March 29th performance at The Echoplex! Here is her extensive review of the show for any of us who might have missed it.

It’s a Tuesday school night, but the show at the Echoplex is too good to pass up. Alex G and Porches tour together, selling out their show which was originally supposed to be at the Echoplex’s smaller sibling venue, the Echo.

Your Friend, a moniker for Kansas native, Taryn Miller, opened up for Alex G and Porches early in the night. With the end of Your Friend’s set and the arrival of Porches, the floor around the stage became full as many people were excited to see what they had come for. While Porches brought the crowds, there was a surprising lack of dancing in the crowd.

Aaron Maine, with his bleached blonde hair and baseball cap, brought the energy and added entertainment to the set with his commentary between songs. In an attempt to lighten the crowd or just have fun himself, he began reciting words and speaking his thoughts aloud. Although much of it didn’t make sense and sounded more like enigmatic poetry, it matched the psychedelic theme of the band’s music, dancing, and visual effects.

Most of Porches’ set consisted of the very danceable songs of their latest album, Pool. Crowd favorites from the album included Underwater, Pool, Mood, and Be Apart. In addition, when Porches played Headsgiving from their Slow Dance in the Cosmos album, the aura of the venue changed with the different mood of the song. While taking a break from watching Porches I wandered over to talk to Alex G, who was helping out at the merch table. While Alex G was spacey and interesting to interact with, Porches’ Headsgiving pulled me back into the crowd for some dancing and listening to the song’s emotional lyrics.

Next, Alex G takes the stage playing favorites from Beach Music (although my personal favorite, In Love, was not played) like Kicker and Bug. While most of Beach Music was played, Mary and Change from the album Trick seemed to be old favorites of the crowd with lots of singing along and dancing to these songs. Interestingly, Alex G made the choice to play Intro from Beach Music, which was an entertaining and chaotic instrumental to watch live. With his rendition of Intro he also incorporated some yells into songs, which changed the calm, lo-fi pop mood.

Alex G officially ends their regular set with a beautiful and melodious rendition of Brite Boy, with the help of female member of Porches, Maya Laner. There is a cute end to the show with some group dancing and a bow from the band.

After most of the band has left the stage, a few “one more songs” from the crowd bring back Alex G and his guitarist back to the stage in which they intimately perform one last song that Alex G ends with a surprising yell of the very last lyric. The combined antics of Alex G and Porches and the live renditions of their latest albums’ songs made the sold out show worth sacrificing valuable homework time on a Tuesday night.

]]>http://kspc.org/concert-review-porches-and-alex-g/feed/0Concert Review – Women F*** S*** Up Festhttp://kspc.org/concert-review-women-fuck-shit-up-fest/
http://kspc.org/concert-review-women-fuck-shit-up-fest/#respondThu, 24 Mar 2016 23:53:45 +0000http://kspc.org/?p=5086While DJ Grace isn’t playing rad tunes on her show Carpool Lane (Wednesdays 2-4pm), she is exploring the greater LA music scene. In this blog post, DJ Grace tells us about her experience at Women F*** S*** Up Fest, a festival in LA celebrating women musicians and artists.

In late February, I had the pleasure of attending the first day of Women F*** S*** Up Fest, a two day festival at the Smell in Los Angeles. The Smell, a DIY art space in LA, was the perfect setting for a festival like this one.

The set list for the night!

At the 2016 Women F*** S*** Up Fest, 12 female-fronted bands f***ed s*** up in their own unique ways. The Storeetellers rockabilly punk sound provided some prime dance tunes. Each band member rotated who sang lead, who was drumming, and who played guitar with each song which was truly impressive. Batwings Catwings brought the fest some awesome electro-punk audience interaction, lots of jumping that verged on moshing. The atmosphere briefly switched to more serious when Ilana Regalado recited her spoken word, calling out themes such as the objectification of female bodies. Ramonda Hammer was the queen of grunge, and brought down the house with lyrics like, “F*** Donald Trump” in their hit Goddamn idiot.

Batwings Catwings blowing everyone away!

Headlining the first day of the Fest was Allison Weiss and her band. Her indie-pop/ feel-good music rounded out the concert, pumping the crowd up for one last set. It was a near constant dance party right to the end, everyone singing and dancing along to every song. Allison Weiss was the perfect artist to end the night!

Top to Bottom: Allison Weiss, Storeetellers, Ramonda Hammer

Apart from the badass performances, what made this fest rock was the venue. The small crowd at Smell assured plenty of dance space, and as there were two stages the music was constant. And, it was all for a great cause! All the profits raised from WFSU Fest were given to the Girls Rock Camp Alliance, an organization that empowers young women through music education and rock music.

KSPC’s Week of Womyn is here to showcase womyn artists and call attention to the gender inequalities in media and beyond.

We are pleased to share an interview with Zoya, a singer-songwriter who spent her childhood here in SoCal. Zoya will be playing tonight at KSPC’s Feminist Festival!!

1. Has your identity shaped your experience as a musician and/or your decision to become one? If so, how?

Well my identity has definitely shaped my sound as an artist but my decision to become one was kind of out of my hands! I was born in India, so, my heritage has really influenced my work – in the sense that I take sounds from Indian music and blend them into the western folk-singer/songwriter genre. At first, I didn’t even realize I was doing it, but now being aware of it – I’ve been empowered to experiment more with world music and blending my cultural background into my folk songs.

2. Do you think the independent music scene is more accessible for women and minorities?

Absolutely. In this crazy new digital age – for sure. Having access to so many DIY outlets and to be able to express yourself in your own homes with the medium of our laptops is insane! Everyone can now – no matter who, what, or where you are – and in my opinion we are in the middle of a new cultural renaissance. People from all of over the world can create something, connect and share it with the world – literally. No matter if you are a woman, man, underprivileged person – we all have the opportunity in music to now to do and create what we love and share it with others. It’s pretty beautiful.

3. Why do you think women are so underrepresented in the arts? Are there ways to fight this that you have found productive?

I actually don’t think they are so underrepresented. The majority of artists I personally am influenced by are female. Like Frida Kahlo, Fiona Apple, Ani DiFranco, Susheela Raman, Maya Angelou – all from different parts of the world or different generations even, have impacted the world through their art and ideas.

I feel there are many women making an impact in the music industry today, not only on the performance side but in the business itself. (ex. Ani DiFranco) I remember watching a video on Noisey TV a while back that featured Annie Clark of St. Vincent who was arguing that women have reached equality with men in the industry. She said, “The only difference (between male and female musicians) is probably that you get asked, ‘What’s it like to be a woman in music? I think that’s it.’”

4. What advice do you have for young women and minorities trying to enter the arts?

Just do it! & Do it all yourself (marketing, booking, management – the works) until you can’t handle it anymore. You’ll know when that time comes, but until then feel empowered and lucky you live in a time where you can create and say whatever you want to share with the world. Don’t be afraid of that, be inspired by it.

5. Who do you find inspirational?

Oh, so many humans! My parents, many of my professors when I went to Berklee College of Music, my colleagues and all the incredible musicians at Berklee, my band members, and really any artists who are traveling the world doing what they love, with no fear of failure and who weren’t afraid to follow their dreams.

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to host an In-Studio performance with Smoke Season and sit down with them for about 15 minutes to talk about their influences, tour dates, and their headlining show in New York at the CMJ Music Festival.

Words cannot describe how incredible this band is to witness live. I have heard a lot of great responses from people who heard them for the first tie on KSPC, and it’s my greatest pleasure to bring music to people that why will gush over.

I think we were all worried from the start by their vast amount of equipment to set up in KSPC’s cozy studio room but with all hands on deck we made it happen. As they were setting up, I was pulling music out of our library and got distracted every now and then as they put all the pieces together to do their sound check. They came in with a sort of calm vibe that put me at ease during my set but also made me rather eager for it to be time for their session. I wanted the world to hear what I’d been “oozing” and “awing” about.

By the time time they came on, it was absolute magic. That feeling of being blown away upon hearing an artist for the first time–this was that moment. This was that feeling. And yet this wasn’t the first time I had heard them.

They mixed “Badlands,” which was one song that I recognized, along with new songs, not yet released. It felt like a world premiere of explosive “dustbowl” sound in everyone’s ears. This was a great experience, especially for people who listened to them for the first time. The layering of the guitars, the synths pulling you in to an incredible and powerful, soulful voice. I was blown away.

Despite my being in a small room directly behind the drummer, or as he called it, the “booty view,” I was able to feel and was in awe of the energy they exuded.

Sneaky View from My Spot in the OTA

Jason Rosen and Gabrielle Wortman of Smoke Season finished up their set of 5 songs with “Opaque,” one of my favorites off the “Hot Coals Cold Souls” EP, as I waited for them by the door to the OTA room. I was greeted by one petite and excited gal and quiet man with a rather smooth demeanor. They immediately walked in and commented on how cool certain aspects of the room were, then sat down as we all waited for the current song I was playing to end.

“Who is this?” asked Wortman.

“Oh this is Hello Dollface. The song is ‘Sounds’ I believe,” I replied.

Wortman turned to Rosen and started talking about the bass line and how cool it was.

When it came time for the interview, I started the conversation by confirming that they each had been in different musical projects before they began collaborating. Wortman had come from the electronic-rock band TEMP3ST while Rosen had been the guitarist and keyboardist for the alt-pop band Honor Society. Having a lot of musical influences in common, they were able to produce their current project. Wortman mentioned that a more recent influence on their recent work was actually Alt-J, which if you’re familiar with his music you can sense the psych-indie aspect similarities.

In response to my asking whether being a duo served as a creative advantage for Smoke Season, Wortman explained that for the first EP Smoke Signals, she and Rosen each wrote all the music and lyrics but that they now had the luxury of bringing ideas to their other band mates and bouncing ideas off each other to see what works.

I then directed them back to one of their recent music videos that I’d watched nonstop for weeks. If you’ve read my previous analysis of their video for “Opaque,” you may know that it messed with my head as I spent quite a bit of time trying to analyze it and getting lost in the visualizations. I highly recommend you check it out and see what I’m talking about, by the way. (Check out the video below!)

I mentioned how I had read so many different reviews from LA Weekly and Buzzfeed, and of course how I had my own take, but I really wanted to know what it was really about.

They both laughed, and Wortman simply said, “It’s about a love triangle. I’m actually in the middle of a love triangle.”

My jaw dropped. “Really? That’s what it was?”

“Yeah.”

“And you were really in milk, right?”

“Yes, that was powdered milk that we were in,” Wortman said.

(As if the video wasn’t cool enough on its own, it’s always amazing to know these little facts.)

Rosen also mentioned that they like to make their videos intentionally vague and see what people come up with. (…Thanks, Rosen.)

Obviously, I had to re-watch the video later that day to be at peace with myself.

Back in October, they played the CMJ Music Marathon at Spike Hill, and then another show at Rockwood Music Hall. Wortman mentioned that she got sick (“as always”) but that other than that, it was exciting and a great show. With that, they announced their Cold Souls tour with which they will be playing from Seattle all the the way back home to Los Angeles. (See poster below.)

Season Tour (Courtesy of Facebook.com/smokeseason)

(Hopefully we can get a hold of some give-away tickets here at KSPC for some lucky listeners, so stay tuned!)

I had an incredible chance to meet a group of humble and talented individuals. I want to thank everyone involved for making this happen, and of course to Smoke Season for stopping by. (P.S. We have a great live sound team at KSPC!)

Janette is the DJ for Girl Underground every Tuesday from 4 to 6 p.m. Having grown up in Southern California, Janette is a longtime listener of KSPC. After writing for the station’s blog, Janette began volunteering as a DJ.

She describes her show as a mix of underground with a little bit of funk, as she as focused on building an audience and playing music that they enjoy.

“I feel like a lot of people have been playing more mellow stuff, but right now I’ve been trying to put in a little bit of funk,” Janette said.

Janette loves listening to music and tries to go to as many shows as possible, enjoying the local music scene. Recently, Janette attended Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL) where she met Interpol’s Paul Banks.

Janette enjoys exploring and connecting with new music that she eventually shares with her listeners.

“Today I listened to a vast amount of record labels that I’ve never listened to before in my life. I don’t usually listen to that much hip-hop but I found one song that I liked.”